:
: : : :
: : : : : It's a book with a title that makes some readers cringe.

: : : : : Written by a top black intellectual, it has been denounced by other
black intellectuals as a setback to the race.

: : : : : Within its 175 pages
is a dispassionate, erudite discussion of 400 years' usage of what's variously
been called "the six-letter word," "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in
the English language" and, simply, "the N-word."

: : : : : The book is "Nigger:
The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word" (Pantheon, $22). Its author, Randall
Kennedy, said in a telephone interview: "I have had conversations about the book
with friends and the title will somehow be unmentioned. A couple of weeks ago,
I went on a radio talk show in Detroit and had a wonderful, hourlong discussion.

: : : : : "But beforehand they told me, 'We have a strict rule here that there
is no use of the word "nigger." ' "
: : : : : A Rhodes Scholar and Harvard
Law School professor, Kennedy will read from and sign copies of his book at Hawley-Cooke
Booksellers in Shelbyville Road Plaza on Wednesday from 7 to 8 p.m. (For more
information, call 893-0133.)

: : : : : He also will be the featured speaker
for a sold-out NETWORK luncheon that day at the Main Branch of the Louisville
Free Public Library.

: : : : : Kennedy's book traces the epithet from slavery
to the 21st century in conversation, movies, literature, academics and the courts,
noting its use by Presidents Truman, Johnson and Nixon. In 1947, he reports, Philadelphia
Phillies teammates yelled from the dugout at Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers:
"We don't want you here, nigger!" In 2000, white Florida high school students
ended a newsletter attack on a black teacher with the phrase, "Die, nigger."
:
: : : : Other racial slurs don't seem to take the same emotional toll.

: :
: : : "Other groups aren't as physically distinguishable and don't have the history
of slavery and racism," noted Anna Bosch, director of the linguistics program
at the University of Kentucky.

: : : : : Generations of black people have felt
the sting of the word "nigger."

: : : : : "It was a curse word, a bad word,
when I grew up as a child, calling someone out of their name, and a no-no in our
family," said Lillian Anthony, a retired official of Presbyterian Church (USA).
"Later, my research as an educator led me into documenting negative images of
black people. And a lot of the images had the word 'nigger' on them, whether they
were postcards, advertisements and artifacts.

: : : : : Car salesman Patrick Edwards said he was called
"nigger" at Pleasure Ridge Park High School when he was a junior there in 1983:
"I was in the lobby and this white girl who was arguing with her boyfriend rushed
by, bumped into me and knocked the change out of my hand as I was trying to buy
a Coke. I said, 'You need to watch where you're going, say excuse me.'

: :
: : : "And she said, 'I ain't got to watch nothing, nigger.' I pushed her, she
tried to kick me, we got into a scuffle, and I was suspended. They didn't do anything
to her."

: : : : : Kennedy's book has several examples of public utterances
of the word that resulted in controversial firings. In Kentucky, pressure mounted
on former Gov. A.B. "Happy" Chandler to resign from UK's board of trustees in
1988 after he said, "Zimbabwe's all nigger now," in a meeting about stock divestiture
in then-apartheid South Africa. He rejected demands that he resign and rode out
the controversy.

: : : : : Over time, many believe the word has appropriated
new, positive contexts, meanings and connotations. Kennedy applauds its use as
a bonding term of affection between black men and in interracial friendships.
: : : : : Actress Halle Berry, for example, made it a pet name between interracial
lovers in the 1998 movie "Bullworth," telling Warren Beatty: "You know you're
my nigger."

: : : : : N.W.A., the Compton, Calif., rap-music consortium that
produced Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, stands for "Niggas With Attitude." And Kennedy
notes that Asian teens who assimilate hip-hop culture regularly call each other
"nigger," trying to be ghetto-authentic like their African-American heroes.

: : : :
: Kennedy said, "I've been called 'nigger' across the gamut of ways that it is
used. I've been called 'nigger' with love, and I've also been called 'nigger'
with malice.

: : : : : "Do I use the word? No, I don't. But I do have friends
who embrace me and say, 'Good to see you, my nigger.' Am I offended? No. Do I
have white friends who have called me 'nigger'? No. Can I imagine this situation?
Yes.

: : : : : "I'm not urging people to use the word. It's not as if I'm trying
to popularize it. I'm trying to educate people about the way it's being used."

: : : : : The idea for the book originated with a series of lectures Kennedy
delivered in 1998 at Stanford University, titled "Who Can Say Nigger . . . And
Other Related Questions."

: : : : : Afterward, he searched a legal database
and found more than 4,000 court cases related to the word. In some, verdicts had
been invalidated because a juror said the N-word. In others, judges and prosecutors
were disqualified for using it as an insult.

: : : : : After Kennedy's book
was published, some executives at Pantheon Books refused to utter the title, and
reportedly worried that it would hurt book sales. Kennedy's editor, Errol McDonald,
wrote "nigger" on a piece of paper and went around the office making colleagues
pronounce it.

: : : : : "Sales have been really good for us," said Melissa
Bernstrom, public-relations director at Louisville's Hawley-Cooke Booksellers.
"But we've had no one ask for it by name. They tend to say, 'Do you have Randall
Kennedy's new book?' And at least one person just pointed to his picture in our
newsletter and said, 'Do you have this book?'

: : : : : "I don't know if that's
quantifiable, but it's not how customers ask for other titles."

: : : : : The
book got gratuitous publicity when Columbia Law School professor Patricia Williams
and Duke University African-American Studies professor Houston Baker said the
book and its title would embolden racists to use the word more.

: : : : : Kennedy's
wasn't the first book with the N-word in its title. "Nigger" was the title of
comedian/-activist Dick Gregory's 1964 autobiography, and satirist Cecil Brown's
debut novel in 1969 was called "The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger."

:
: : : : "That was a more radical time," said David Anderson, associate English
professor at the University of Louisville. "The '60s were about shocking people
into new realities.

: : : : : "But Kennedy's going to be judged on two things:
One, the tradition that says you should never use the word, or encourage others
to use it, so there's a sense of propriety that some people will believe he's
violated.

: : : : : And others will ask whether the use of a provocative title
is a means of calling attention to himself."
: : : : : Other epithets have
evolved into honorifics as modern usage subverts their original intent to offend.
"Bitch," for example, defined by Webster's New College Dictionary as "a spiteful
or ill-tempered woman," became synonymous among some in the '90s with female assertiveness.

: : : : : Kennedy says keeping "nigger" taboo only reaffirms its power to harm.
He writes: "In stressing the 'terror' of verbal abuse, proponents of hate-speech
regulation have, ironically, empowered abusers while simultaneously weakening
black students by counseling that they should feel grievously wounded by remarks
that their predecessors would have ignored or shaken off."

: : : : : Efforts
to ban the word are futile anyway, Bosch said: "I can't imagine it happening.
It's very common that, over many centuries of use, a word can take on a new meaning
because it's used in a new context. It may fall into disuse in its negative sense,
and eventually be forgotten.

: : : : : "But part of the genius of language
is its flexibility, and how people use words to convey whatever meaning they want.
I think the best we can hope for is that our culture would change in such a way
that it wouldn't be needed as a term of abuse."

: : : : There's a review of
the book by Christopher Hitchens in the March 4, 2002 issue of The Nation. It
recalls a recent "huge and needless fuss in the mayor's office in Washington (D.C.)
when some budgetary official used the word 'niggardly' to describe an item of
expenditure and had to resign." I remember how floored I was when I heard about
that incident, which happened a year or two ago. That such an apparently innocent
use of a word that, it turns out, only SOUNDS like it's related to the n-word--well,
such is the power of language. Even careful usage can get one into big trouble.

: : : In my no doubt skewed opinion, the official used poor judgment. If I
were speaking to a group of gay and straight people, I'd avoid saying "Let's throw
a few faggots on the fire," however innocuous my intention.

: : "A gentleman,"
I was once told, " is someone who never unintentionally hurts another's feelings."

:
That sounds like Oscar Wilde.

: I agree it wouldn't be a good idea to use terms
like faggot for firewood, etc., in certain situations. But sometimes words "come
out surprised" like a little kid in my family once said. Especially when the speaker
is nervous and trying really hard to say the right things.

I certainly agree
that it was a bad idea, in retrospect, for this particular official, in that particular
roomful of people, to have used that particular word to impart his/her notion
of the relative size of the particular expense item in the budget he/she was discussing.
The world isn't perfect. Even precise language can be misinterpreted, and it does
make sense to use language with an eye toward avoiding such misinterpretations,
even if the consequences are less dire than having to resign from one's job. But
I still think it's important to say what one means, with precision. To sacrifice
that to avoid stepping on toes is, at least in some cases, to substitute political
correctness for serious, meaningful discourse. I prefer the latter.